Salaries of top CFOs in the United States

The top CFO’s in the country
earn some amazing salary; many in the millions of dollars. Part of the reason
why their earnings are so high is because they play an integral part in helping
a corporation save money and manage its finances. They generally work very long
hours and perform a wide variety of job duties. They usually earn less than the
chief executive officer. Of course not all CFO’s earn millions; these are the
select few who happen to work for huge companies. Smaller companies and the
government don’t have the funds to dole out huge salaries like that.

One interesting fact to note is that the salary for financial
officers actually surpassed that of CEO for 2010. Curious to know how much the
top earners make? Let’s take at a few figures here. In addition to high pay,
many also receive lots of incentives such as stock options worth millions of
dollars.

Let’s take a look at some of the top earners in the business
world. GM’s Daniel Amman is a big earner with a salary that tops 750k a year.
He also receives over three million dollars annually in stock options. Susan L
Decker of Yahoo earned 15 million. Robert J Darretta of Johnson and Johnson
earned over 11 million. Jeffrey N Edwards, the CFO of Merrill Lynch earned a
reported 28 million dollars.

Again, these are the top earners; salaries like these are
nowhere near the average or norm at all. Some who work for a non-profit
organization may even earn less than $100k a year. As a matter of fact, an
individual who has held this title of 1-4 years earns on average between
$36,000 to $110,000 which is nowhere near what the million dollar earners are
making. A lot of it has to do with the type of company one works for and the
amount of experience the CFO brings to the table. Huge companies like Merrill
Lynch and Yahoo are able to pay top dollar for top talent.

Let’s take a look at salary figures that are more average and
common. A CFO with 1-4 years of experience can expect to earn anywhere between
$36,000 to $110,000 whereas one with over 20 years of experience can earn
between $74,000-$219,000. Now these are only averages; keep in mind that a CFO
at a billion dollar corporations can earn millions of dollars along with
millions in stock options as we’ve seen in the above examples.

He or she will also need to be a leader and have the
capability to manage a team. Long are the days when the job was merely about
crunching numbers. Communication skills are vital for any CFO; they may need to
deal with the press or explain complicated financial matters to co-workers in a
way that is easy to understand. They would also need to perform various
functions related to human resources and the technology field. The CFO has a
direct impact on the bottom line of any company and that perhaps is the reason
why their own bottom lines are so substantial.

Digital marketing enthusiast and industry professional in Digital marketing, Blogging, Social Media and Technology News, Yasir has keen interest in writing, blogging, News breaking and sharing ideas. He works as Manager Marketing at Expand Media a digital marketing agency. Follow him on